


A Different Soul From Yours

by ArowanaPrincess



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bodyswap, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fluff and Angst, Frisk will be as non-verbal as possible, Gen, INDEFINITE HIATUS, Non-Binary Frisk, POV Second Person, POV becomes third person at some point, Post-Pacifist Route, Tags will be edited as the story continues, the issues won't be so prominent don't worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-03 19:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5303951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArowanaPrincess/pseuds/ArowanaPrincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alphys is reluctantly experimenting on Frisk's soul when something goes... not wrong, not right, but weird. Hilarity ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unnecessary Tension

It’s been three months since you’ve freed all monsterkind, and you were stuck in another creepy lab.

Alphys was trying to run some experiments on you in her new laboratory. You only had to go there in the afternoons, after Toriel dismissed you from school. The experiments weren’t painful, as all you did were tests and exercises that Alphys would make you go through. Sometimes you enjoyed these moments in the lab. You would stay in the bed for some time and watch Alphys run around mutter scientific gibberish. Your friends would visit often, at least one friend per day, and you never felt too bored in the laboratory.

Today was the best day you've had in the past month.  Papyrus had decided that they should hold a party that day in order celebrate the first three months of living on the surface. They planned it a couple of weeks beforehand, and everyone was eager to help in. The past months were filled with ambassador meetings with the humans and adjusting to life on the surface. It was a tiring and trying time, so you all wanted to catch a break.  Asgore even took a break from his mayoral duties to help in the preparations and partake in the festivities.

The party started out with a blast. Everyone came in in an excited manner, happy to be free from the obligations of work. You and Alphys arrived first, since the party was in her lab. You both started setting up the area, as your closest friends started coming to help. The last to arrive was Sans, who had been busy 'working.'

After half an hour dedicated to socializing and telling each other stories, dinner began. Papyrus was eager to give everyone a sample of his spaghetti, which had improved a great deal after watching Mettaton guest star on Master Chef. Of course, Undyne didn't want to back down, and she prepared a lot of (overcooked) dishes to make up for it. Everyone else contributed as well: Toriel baked some sweets, Asgore prepared the drinks, and Sans made real hot dogs. You didn't know how to cook, so you bought some pastries from Muffet's bakery down the lane. Everyone was having fun as they chatted with each other. Funny anecdotes and tales of confusion about the humans traded back and forth.

The only person left out of the entire deal was you. Despite needing to reassure everyone else about it, you weren’t feeling bad about it.

Your mother looked in your direction for the nth time this night, giving you a look of concern. You tried your best to smile, and continued to eat small bites of butterscotch pie.

“Alphys,” Toriel asked in a worried tone, “when will Frisk be done with the experiments? It would be better if Frisk could join us in the celebration. I’m sure that the human scientists allow a small margin of error in your research. It's just one day.”

The scientist look scared as your mother addressed her. You noticed that her hands were shaking as she tried to finish her slice of pie. “Yo- your majesty, I- I’d like Frisk to join us too, b- but I don’t know if th- they’d be alright if I made a mistake…”

Asgore looked in Toriel’s direction with concerned eyes. “Dr Porter is a strict professor, Tori. I could hardly convince her to stop pushing for pulling Frisk out of school for the experiments. Much less if I asked her for a reprieve.”

Toriel faced her ex and gave Asgore the driest look that she could. “Of course you couldn’t convince her. You couldn’t fight anyone if they had the power of a Whimsun, for goodness’ sake.”

Undyne started cackling and nearly broke her seat when she hit it. Papyrus, however, realized the probability of an argument that could happen then. He grabbed the plate of spaghetti and put it between Asgore and Toriel. “HEY NOW, LET’S NOT FIGHT!! WHY NOT GET SOME MORE SPAGHETTI, COOKED BY THE MASTER CHEF HIMSELF??”

You let out a sigh of relief as Papyrus distributed the spaghetti between the Boss Monsters. For all his obliviousness, the tall skeleton was quick to sense moods in people. He knew how to diffuse the tension in the air. Papyrus had a knack for improving the mood, and you were glad that he wasn’t losing that talent any time soon.

But…

You looked at yourself. You were sitting on a bed, as usual, attached to a sensory machine. A long cloth was wrapped around your chest. It covered a metal pad lying over your heart,with a long wire running back to the machine. It was heavy and warm and you could feel vibrations in the area every now and then. Alphys said that it was to stimulate your defense system, or whatever it was.

When you came out with an entire horde of monsters, you all expected that humans would be questioning their motives. And that was true! Humans did nothing but question monsters repetitively about everything. Along with that came questions about how monsters and their sciences worked. Why wasn’t their food digested? Why did they turn into dust when they die? How did monsters even reproduce?

Asgore worked as a representative for their species when it came to answering questions about their culture and history. However, the human scientists asked a certain ex-Royal Scientist for all the scientific questions. Alphys was able to answer them, despite a lot of hesitation and stuttering. However, there was one topic that she couldn’t answer any questions about.

It was anything related to the nature of souls. Alphys answered each question related to that topic with a scientific equivalent of “we don’t know”. She stated that their previous soul experiments had failed in finding any new information.

You had the feeling that she didn’t want to talk about the soul experiments that she had done.

However, human scientists were not alright with passing it off as simple as that. The most famous of these was a scientist named Dr Hyacinth Porter. She was not willing to settle for an answer as simple as ‘determination’, for the differences between human and monster souls. In her words, using the word determination was akin to using a children’s storybook as a reference for a research paper.

And Dr Porter had pointed out certain things that were off about your soul, and only your soul. It turned out that you weren’t meant to survive a fall like that, in Mount Ebott. She had seen some of the fights that had happened when some of the monsters had spats with other humans . She watched each fight, including the ones that needed you to break it up. She pointed out a difference that happened whenever you interfered with the fights, as compared to the other humans.

So why were you different from the rest?

Thus, Alphys started her experiments on you. She seemed terrified about the prospect of experimenting on souls again, especially with her friend as the test subject. But something about her changed after the last interview with Dr Porter. Whenever you asked her about the progress, her stuttering would be worse than usual and her movements were more frantic. Eventually, you stopped, and you hoped that she’d just get better.

You felt strange about this experiment, though. You heard Alphys’s muttering during the long afternoons together. She would mutter “no control group” or “no hypotheses” or “lack of data”. She complained to you about the reasons why this experiment was invalid.

You didn’t understand why. You just went with it. You just hoped that Alphys would get what she needed as soon as she could.

Especially when she always looked so guilty about doing it all.

Undyne hopped off her chair as she finished her dinner. “Well, that was an awesome meal. Wish you could eat with us too, Frisk! But hey, it’s my turn today to FIGHT you, right??”

You gulped. It was a Saturday, right? Wasn’t that Papyrus’s schedule to FIGHT you, rather? Well, no, he went just yesterday, but you know, we could postpone Undyne for another day, right?

But as Undyne approached you with a wicked grin on her face, you had a feeling she wasn’t backing down anyway.

“Undyne!” Toriel called out, coming down from her seat to move towards the warrior. “Don’t hurt Frisk so much, alright? Please be calm and gentle with them when you FIGHT them.”

“Yeah, yeah! I know better than to hurt them too bad!” A glowing spear materialized in her hand, ready to strike you.

"Undyne, I mean it!"

You tried to curl up as much as you could without breaking the position that Alphys had asked you to keep. You remembered how painful her spears were. They hurt and you weren’t sure why you hadn’t died when you fought with her, honestly. If the dodging wasn’t intuitive for you, you wouldn’t be here now, that's for sure. Even Asgore, who gave you a lot of difficulty, didn’t have attacks as painful as Undyne’s.

But you had no choice. You braced yourself for the attack. As you did, you felt a red heart flutter out of your chest. A large ring of white magic surrounded you, acting as a barrier limiting the movement of your SOUL. But in these experiments, they didn’t matter too much.

Alphys ran over to the machine beside you. She checked the screen before signaling to Undyne to begin her attack.

“YEAHHHHH! Coming at ya, Frisk!” She threw the spear at you.

You stayed still, and let the attack hit you. As the spear hit your SOUL, blue magic pierced through your body. Pain spread throughout yourself, and you felt a bit of your life drain away. It wasn’t too bad, but Undyne still hit the hardest out of all your friends.

“Alright, that’s it!” Alphys tapped out something on the screen. “Frisk, just stay there for another thirty minutes. We need to measure your Hit Points after the attack, and see if it heals.”

You nodded, as the little red heart flies back inside of you. You got the feeling that you weren’t going to heal in those thirty minutes, though. You never did, and the previous experiments had proven that right.

You were the only human, or at least the only one in the area, that had your soul fly out of your body as monsters FIGHT you. In that case, the attacks wouldn’t hit your body directly, but focused on damaging the soul. You felt the pain and effects of these attacks, despite the fact that wounds would never show up. It was an interesting case for you, and you weren’t quite sure why you were so special.

Instead of being wounded like other humans, the soul absorbed the damage you received. The scientists had noted that ability as a Hit Point system. They noticed that it was normally only observed in monsters. As the scientists discussed how you were taking in the damage, you tried to remember your previous instances in the underground. You remember feeling a burden on your SOUL that got heavier as a monster would hit you. The burden was only lightened whenever you were able to eat something, which restored your HP.

But…

Another thing you remember was that sometimes your burden would magically get better. You didn’t know how, or why, but there were points when you just felt... so…

There wasn’t a better word for it. You remember how there were little, cute moments in your adventure. Little events like the mouse trying to get the cheese, or walking through rustling leaves. You could’ve sworn the little moments were glowing yellow, like you were dreaming of a fallen star. Whenever you felt those moments, the burdens would disappear and you’d feel determined to move forward with your journey.

Now, you were finally out of the underground, and you even had an entire family to stay with, to boot. You had the most loving and doting set of parents you could have ever asked for. You had a wild bunch of friends that you were sure that you could never get tired of them. You go to an enjoyable school with so many kids that actually enjoyed being with you. It was an improvement over your old life, definitely, and there was no way you would be giving up this ending. In fact, you could say that you were determined to stay in this constant happily ever after.

There was no way that this could go horribly, right?

But you were so, so wrong.


	2. Fallen Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone feels sorry that Frisk has to miss out on the party games because of the experiment, so they try to make it more lively. Chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note the new tags. I'll add tags as story continues, and notify whenever that happens. I'm keeping this mostly fluffy, but you know, just in case.

Nice party you were having. If only you were actually in it.

You were running around a white box, a little red heart flying to dodge white bullets. Meanwhile, everyone was doing common, human party games now.  Right now, they were playing Pictionary. The latest eavesdropping convo was Undyne having a hard time guessing the word 'ghost.'

"Papyrus, why the heck did you draw Mettaton!?"

"BECAUSE HE'S MY FAVORITE GHOST!!!"

"He's a ROBOT now. His cousin would've been better!!"

You laughed, but it came with a cost; you got distracted and hit a bullet. There goes 2 HP.

"Frisk!! Be careful!" Alphys called out from behind the machine.

Sigh. The problems of having 20 HP only. Thank goodness this wasn’t another fight that lasted until you die.

As you kept on dodging the bullets, you noticed that Toriel was watching you again. She had the same look of worry on her face as she did earlier. The same creases of her eyebrow, the same displeased curl of her mouth, the same anxious eyes. You were sure that she wasn't paying attention to the game at all.

It made sense that she'd keep watching you. She was reluctant to allow you to partake in these experiments. It had taken her a week for you, Alphys and Asgore to convince her to say yes. But even when she had approved, you felt her reluctance. You had listened to quite a many talks from her about consent.

You weren't surprised at all when she stood up. Everyone stopped the game to look at her. She kept her eyes on you.

"Alphys," her voice was clear as she said this, "stop the experiment now."

Alphys, used to dealing with the gentle king, froze up when Toriel addressed her. She quickly punched some buttons on her computer, which stopped the bullets.

As you looked at Toriel calmly but sternly addressing Alphys, you remembered why Toriel was the former queen.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow this to continue any longer. It is worrying enough to allow such experiments happen to my child every day, but… not now. Frisk, please join us in the fun.”

You looked over to Alphys, and she was shaking in her seat. She was biting her nails as her tail thumped against the floor in a haphazard manner. You saw the beginning of tears in her eyes.

You looked again at your mother, and then pointed at Alphys.

Toriel let out a sigh. “Frisk, I know she has to finish this experiment. Not just for her, but for the sake of all monsterkind. The results would greatly affect our relationships with the humans. But, Frisk, you’re just a _child_. You deserve to have a break and some fun. When was the last time you’ve gotten to play with some friends?”

Your first immediate thought was that the experiment was completely fine. Alphys wasn’t even hurting you, right? Nothing bad was going on at all. But as you thought about it, you felt a tiny part agree with your mom.

~~Listen to your mother.~~

You felt dejected. On one hand, you didn’t really want to disappoint Alphys. You really wanted to relieve the stress she had because of the project. You could feel that she was scared to mess up the experiment again. Alphys was so _careful_ when she was handling Frisk. She triple-checked everything before continuing with each step. She did extensive pre-researching before she started anything. She was even unsure about letting Undyne FIGHT you during the experiment. Alphys was never allowing you to get hurt, and you believed it.

But Toriel… She was your mother, and you couldn’t disobey her command. You felt terrible enough when you had to convince her to let you in the experiment. And now, she looked very disappointed.

Especially with you.

~~Don’t be a bad child.~~

You didn’t know what to do. You were reluctant to pick either option. You just stood there, unable to answer back.

~~You’re going to disappoint them.~~

The rest of the monsters looked uncomfortable in the situation. None of them seemed to know what to do as well.

Suddenly, Papyrus shouted out, “WAIT!!! I KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS!!”

Leave it to Papyrus to save you.

Papyrus ran in front of all of you and turned around to face everyone. “FRISK ‘S EXPERIMENTS ARE JUST HIM DOING EXERCISES, RIGHT? SO WHY DON’T WE ALL DO THE SAME THING? WE’LL COMPETE WITH FRISK TO SEE WHO HAS THE BEST SCORE!!!”

Undyne laughed loudly. She gave one of her trademark grins and playfully punched Papyrus’s shoulder. “That’s an _awesome_ idea! Plus, it makes me wanna make sure I beat Frisk this time! I won’t be losing to you again!”

Alphys tilted her head a bit. She chewed on her thumb slowly. “I- I suppose I can use the rest of you for comparison. I think I have a spare set of Soulbelts.” She pointed at the cloth wrapped around your chest, and she looked around the lab, trying to remember where she placed them.

Sans gave a lazy smile and a thumbs-up to his brother. Asgore nodded in approval.

The only one who hadn’t reacted yet was Toriel. She still looked worried about it, but much less so than before. She contemplated it for a bit. “It’s a decent compromise. I suppose that Frisk is at least having fun.” She looked at you. “My child, are you alright with this?”

You tried to gauge her reaction. Would she prefer it if you said no? You couldn’t be sure.

~~Don’t make her mad.~~

But… this was a pretty fun idea. It seemed silly that none of you had thought to do that before. Maybe it was because it was only now that all of you were in the same place?

You gave the widest smile you could, ~~making sure not to open your mouth~~.

“Well, that settles it, I suppose. Alphys, you wouldn’t mind making the exercises a little easier? I’m fairly sure that none of us is used to dodging bullets.”

 

Alphys found enough spare belts for everyone. She tried to match them up by pairs –her and Undyne (obviously), Sans and Papyrus (again, obviously), and then Toriel and Asgore (the former was _not_ happy about this). You were alone, since you were the sole human in the bunch.

As she adjusted the last Soulbelt on Asgore –poor goat was big for the thing– she started explaining how it would go. “Alright, so the main experiment is that your souls” –she pointed at everyone– “are supposed to dodge the bullets. No blocking, just dodge as much as possible. Since the arena is too small for all of us, I divided us into pairs. While one half of the pair is in the arena, the other half will generate attacks, _as softly as possible_ , to try and aim for the rest. Since Frisk is alone, they can skip every other round. Your belts will collect data from the game, and the data of the pair is ‘added’ together for the score. Your scores depend on its results.”

Undyne punched the air in excitement. “Yeah! How do we decide who wins??”

“Um, I- I’ll get to that later. Probably whoever has the most HP left, or something like that. I don’t know. But whatever you do, do not let the belt get hit. It’s a rather delicate piece of machine, and I’d rather not break it.”

Toriel examine her belt carefully, looking rather suspicious. “What would happen if it were to break?”

“Oh- don’t worry, Toriel! It’ll just stop working. Perhaps some static shock, but nothing too major, as long as the magic charge created isn’t too big. As long as you don’t get hit by a powerful attack, nothing bad should happen. So, please, _Undyne_ , don’t throw your spears so hard!”

“Hey! I take offense at that!”

You giggled. You loved how Alphys was slowly changing, especially around Undyne. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the stuttering Alphys during her experiments.

“Oh! One last reminder!” Alphys ran over and pointed to the white barrier that encircled the arena. “You see this barrier, right? It’s just supposed to keep you inside the arena. Nothing bad should happen if you touch it. Don’t collide with the barrier along with an attack, though. That’s going to create some magical recoil that might be a little powerful. Just keep to the center, and you guys should be fine. It’s a pretty wide arena.”

“I think that’s it. Let’s start the game!”

The first round was with Undyne, Papyrus, and Asgore. Toriel’s fire seemed to be the most difficult to dodge, since it moved in a standing wave formation. You also noticed that it seemed to be aimed towards Asgore, in particular. Alphys’s magic robots limited the area for dodging, since their attacks went straight, but left no space to go through. Sans wasn’t even trying; he just summoned a couple of weak bones to surprise someone every now and then.

You chose to skip this round for two reasons. The first was simple: you had done the exercise earlier, and wanted to rest. The second… you couldn’t quite explain it.

You guess you were afraid of the people who were attacking this round.

Well, not really. Toriel could control her fire with ease. She was never going to hurt you. Meanwhile, Alphys was too anxious to use her magic properly, so it would never be too strong. As for the people who were attacking next round? Asgore was probably the gentlest attacker, but his flames still gave you a difficult time. Papyrus loved to go absolutely wild with his bone attacks. Undyne’s spears gave you nightmares at night.

~~You’re not quite sure if you were being literal with that last statement.~~

All in all, the first set of attackers was easier than the second. So why did you pick the second?

~~You’re forgetting someone.~~

Okay, this was incredibly silly, but you were just a _tiny_ bit afraid of Sans.

It was stupid. You knew. But it wasn’t like you didn’t have any reasons for it! When you were in Mettaton resort, you had a conversation with him. At first it was a heartwarming conversation about him meeting Toriel. Rather touching, honestly.  You were tempted to give him your phone and make him call Toriel, in the hopes that she answered.

And then he mentioned something rather uncomfortable about your first meeting with him in Snowdin:

Y o u ’ d  b e  d e a d  w h e r e  y o u  s t a n d.

As you thought of this memory, a shiver ran up your spine. It was a familiar feeling, but you had no idea where it had come from. You clutched the table, like you did before, and started fingering the cloth. You tried to focus on the smooth texture. You were not going to break down at that moment. ~~Your mother would be so mad if you did~~.

It was a really silly memory.  You had no reason to fear him. He even said that it was a joke. You had never even fought Sans, so why were you afraid of him?

Yeah, it was really silly of you to think that. Stop doing it.

You focused on the current round. Undyne and Papyrus seemed to be having a blast dodging things. Papyrus seemed to be adept to it, jumping everywhere like a little blue heart. Meanwhile, Undyne was having some difficulty not following her instincts. She was the type to face danger head-on, after all. Her quick reflexes saved her though. Asgore was having the toughest time, due to his large body. His high health saved him from the worst, at least.

Finally the round ended. All three monsters looked relieved. Undyne stretched out her arms, and wiped off the sweat on her forehead. “Wow, that was a great workout!”

“I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE! THIS WAS VERY FUN, FRISK!! WHY DIDN’T YOU EVER INVITE US??”

You gave him a small smile and shrugged your shoulders. In response, Papyrus pouted.

Asgore patted Papyrus on the shoulder. “Now, now, Papyrus. I’m sure that Frisk would’ve invited you, had they known that you were up for it. I’m sure that they just weren’t sure if they were allowed.”

“I KNOW, BUT THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS UP FOR ANYTHING!!! FRISK, REMEMBER THIS IN THE FUTURE.”

You nodded. You hopped off your seat and started making your way to the starting positions. A little red heart flew out of you, as usual. You wondered why everyone else’s souls never came out.

Alphys pointed out where to go for everyone to stay. After double-checking the set-up, she gave the go signal for the attackers. “We- we’re ready when you are!”

Undyne summoned up a spear and pointed it towards the sky- or in this case, the ceiling. “I will avenge for our losses in the previous round!! Onward, comrades!”

Long story short, it was mayhem.

As predicted, Asgore kept his attacks pretty weak, but the patterns would still throw you for a loop. Papyrus decided become the epitome of fun, which meant bones everywhere. At least you didn’t have blue magic to keep you down, but it was still confusing. Undyne was being Undyne. Enough said.

You were dodging the attacks with little difficulty. You had memorized their moves to a fault. They all had common attack patterns, ones that felt intuitive for you to dodge. Why, you didn’t know.

You snuck a peek at the other three. Alphys was having a difficult time dodging the attacks. While she was doing pretty well at balancing herself, she hesitated too much whenever she wanted to make a move. Toriel, on the other hand, was having the same difficulty as Asgore for dodging. She moved as quickly and precisely as she could, but she still got hit. Sans, surprisingly, was dodging every attack with an accuracy that even you couldn’t compete with. It even looked like he was teleporting. You wouldn’t be surprised -heck, you suspected it a lot- but you had never seen him in action before.

~~But you have seen it before, haven’t you?~~

You noticed that Asgore threw some wild fire in the area that Sans was in. The skeleton disappeared.

Yep, he was teleporting. Cheater.

And he reappeared right next to you. Both of you were shocked –you didn’t even know that Sans could be surprised by anything- and stepped back. You turned around and realized one of Undyne’s spears was heading towards you, so you jumped to the side again, only to face the white barrier. You hadn’t known how near you were to the sides.

You realized your mistake too slowly. You collided with the barrier, as Undyne’s spear hit it at the same time. You felt a huge burst of energy from the Soulbelt, draining you. Your soul was going in and out of the belt, and for a few moments, you could’ve sworn you saw a second heart, before the first heart beat it anyway. You felt parts of you getting weaker from the magic.

Everything went black.

* * *

 

You woke up to silence, hearing nothing except for the hissing of the machines.

You sat up quickly. You winced, realizing that your body was in pain from the shock earlier. It was probably best if you didn’t move, but you were too concerned about everyone else. You had to make sure that everyone else was fine. If you survived, then your friends should’ve been okay, right? You were in the center of the explosion, so you must’ve taken the full force of the damage.

As soon as you could do it, you opened your eyes to look around. The lab was a mess! Parts of it were smoking in different places. Some machines survived, others didn’t. Whatever was left on the party table had scattered on the floor, especially since the table was knocked over.

You tried to look for your friends. You let a sigh of relief escape your mouth when you noticed Sans’s body beside yours. You turned your head slowly, spotting silhouettes of various monsters lying in the smoke. Good. They weren’t dust yet.

You scooted over to Sans, trying to ignore the pain. You tried to look away from his eyes, which were really creepy without the white pupils. There didn’t seem to be any damage on his body –thankfully– and none of his parts were starting to crumble. You touched his hand to check, and it was as stable as before. As you were sure it was safe to, you started to rock Sans’s shoulders. “Sans,” you called out weakly.

After a while, you could feel the skeleton stirring. You leaned in closer to his face, and tried to find any hint of consciousness. Slowly, white dots appeared in them.

“FRISK!!!” The skeleton shot upwards and hugged you so tight that you could’ve burst. “OH NO, WHAT HAPPENED??? ARE YOU OKAY?? IS EVERYONE OKAY???”

You were surprised. You had never heard Sans shout so loudly in your life before. You pointed towards the rest of the monsters, who were starting to stir. You guessed that the shouting had a help in waking them up.

“OH NO!!! EVERYONE FELL ASLEEP!!! FRISK, HELP ME WAKE THEM UP!!!” Sans got up very quickly, and his head looked around just as fast. “FIRST, MY BROTHER!! I’M SO WORRIED FOR HIM, ESPECIALLY WITH HIS LOW HEALTH!!! WHERE IS HE??”

As he scampered off, you tried to get up on your feet. You were so confused by what was happening that you didn’t even acknowledge the pain in your body. What happened to Sans? Was the explosion so bad that he couldn’t stay calm anymore?

You watched Sans run around and checking the other bodies. As he did, he kept shouting about how he was hoping that his brother was okay. You realized that he was calling out for _Sans_. You were getting more confused by the minute. And then he let out a loud gasp, and looked at you with a scared look in his eyes. “FRISK, LOOK!!!” He quickly motioned for you to come over.

You limped over to the very anxious Sans. When you got near him, he pointed and started whimpering. You looked at where he was pointing at, and realized that he was pointing at Papyrus. You looked back at him, gave him a very confused look.

“FRISK!!! WHY ARE THERE TWO OF ME???”

Wait, what?

You tried to make sense of the situation. First, Sans was freaking out, which Sans never did. Next, Sans was calling out for his brother, which was himself? And now, he was freaking out over a copycat of himself, which was Papyrus…

The pieces clicked in your head. You kneeled over Papyrus –or what looked like Papyrus – and shook him awake. The skeleton blinked and opened his eyes. “frisk,” He said softly, and definitely not Papyrus-like. “you okay?”

“What’s your name?”

“wait, what?”

“Just answer,” You insisted. You were beginning to understand what was happening, and if ‘Papyrus’ confirmed it…

“is this a joke? it’s sans, kiddo.” He tried to get up, rubbing his head and slowly looking up. “why’d you ask me that-”

The tall skeleton was looking at his brother now. Both of them had the same look of shock and confusion, like _twins_.

‘Sans’ jumped back. “WHO ARE YOU, IMPOSTER?? WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO COPY ME?? NO ONE CAN BE AS GREAT AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!! AND FRISK!” He turned to face you. “WHY DID YOU SPEAK TO MY CLONE??? WHAT DID HE SAY??”

“wait.” ‘Papyrus’ pointed at ‘Sans’ as he started to stand up. “are you… _papyus_?”

“OF COURSE I AM!!! AND YOU AREN’T, EVEN IF YOU HAVE MY FACE!!! YOU DON’T EVEN SOUND LIKE ME!!! AND…” ‘Sans’ trailed off as his brother stood up fully. “WHY ARE YOU TALLER THAN THE GREAT PAPYRUS IF WE HAVE THE SAME BODY??”

“maybe because we don’t.” ‘Papyrus’ pointed at ‘Sans’ body, stopping in shock as he noticed his gloved hand. He started looking down at his own body, looking very uncomfortable.

“WHAT??” ‘Sans’ –aka, Papyrus-in-San’s-body and definitely not Sans at all– started looking down on himself. “WHY AM I WEARING SANS’S CLOTHES??? IS HE PLAYING ONE OF HIS PRANKS AGAIN???”

“no, i’m not,” replied ‘Papyrus’, who was really Sans-in-Papyrus’s-body. He was still staring at his new battle body.

“WAIT, YOU’RE SANS??? IN MY BODY??? WHY ARE YOU IN MY BODY??? I TOLD YOU THAT IF YOU WANTED A BODY LIKE THAT, YOU SHOULD EXERCISE WITH US-”

“pap, i didn’t switch our bodies on purpose.” He lifted his hands up in the air. “i don’t even know what’s going on.”

“WAIT, I’M IN YOUR BODY??? NO!!!!!!!! YOU’RE SO WEAK!!!! IT’S GOING TO TAKE ME DAYS TO LEVEL UP TO MY REAL STRENGTH!!!!!”

Sans checked his body one last time, inspecting the cape behind him, and then looked at you. “frisk- wait, are you still frisk?”

You nodded.

“okay, you’re still you. do you have any idea what’s going on? no? okay, you’re just as confused as we are. have you checked the others yet?”

You shook your head.              

“alright. let’s go check on the rest, first.” He motioned Papyrus to come over. “bro, we should get the others awake. and maybe alphys would know what to do.”

“YOU’RE RIGHT!!! ALPHYS WOULD DEFINITELY BE THE ONE TO FIX THIS PROBLEM!!! I HOPE SHE CAN, AT LEAST, BECAUSE I WANT MY BODY BACK!!!”

“i’ll be sure to give it back to you asap.”

Thankfully, the smoke had dissipated to the point that you could see the others more clearly. You went up to Alphys first, and shook her as quickly as you could. Behind you, Papyrus was screaming for Alphys to wake up already.

Weirdly enough, their voices hadn’t switched. So what you were hearing was Sans’s voice screaming, for the first time since you’ve met him in Snowdin. You were absolutely sure that you were never going to hear a loud Sans or a quiet Papyrus, but hey, what do you know.

Alphys scrunched up her face and suddenly opened her eyes, wider than you had ever seen her do before. She sat up quickly, and spotted you. She pulled you into a hug tighter than Papyrus had before. “FRISK!!! Oh my gosh I’m _so_ glad you’re safe! I’m really really _really_ sorry about the spear earlier! Shoot, Alphys is going to kill me!”

“ _Undyne_?”

“Yeah?” The yellow lizard finally released you from the death hug and let out a huge laugh. “What’s the matter, kid? Is there anything wrong?”

You turned around to look at the two skeletons, who were just as shocked as you. Having no words to say, you pointed at the ground where Undyne’s body was laying.

The smile vanished from the lizard’s face. “Wait, what’s going on!? Is that _me_?!”

“uh.” Sans raised his hand. “pap and i found out earlier that we switched bodies. so far, it seems like the same thing’s happened to you.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“UNDYNE, NORMALLY I’D SAY THAT MY BROTHER IS JOKING, BUT HE’S NOT.”

Undyne scrambled on her feet, and promptly fell over. She turned around and stared at the huge yellow tail she now had. She turned around frantically, and forced herself up. After a couple of steps wobbling on her big feet, refusing to let anyone help her, she ran over to ‘Undyne.’ Undyne was shaking her madly. “Hey, get _up_ already!!!”

‘Undyne’ blinked a couple of times, before slowly opening her eye. Her eye widened and her mouth gaped. “W- wait, a- are y- you m-me-?”

“Girl, your stuttering is terrible right now! Are you Alphys?”

The fish could only blink her right eye. She anxiously nodded.

Undyne leaned back and looked at the other two in shock. “Well… _damn_. Wait, does that mean…?” Undyne pointed at the two monsters that hadn’t fully woken up yet.

You looked at the other two. Both of them were slowly getting up.  ‘Asgore’ was the first to get up, and as soon as ‘his’ eyes spotted you, the huge goat stood up and ran over to you. ‘He’ caught you in a tight embrace, and you were now wrong about Undyne’s hug being the strongest. ‘Asgore’ slowly let go of you, and looked into your eyes. “Goodness, I hope that the explosion didn’t hurt you so much! Are you alright, my child?”

“Mom?”

“Yes?” Toriel cupped your cheek. “Is there something wrong, dear?”

Once again, words failed you. You just pointed to Asgore, who was now standing up.

Toriel stopped smiling. She looked at herself, and was now noticing all the different changes that she hadn’t before. You wondered why no one had realized the differences in their bodies, and wondered if it was because of the initial shock.

Asgore was slowly making his way to the rest of the group, staring at his clone the entire time. “Um, would someone be kind enough to explain what is happening right now?”

Everyone’s voices erupted.

“S- sir, I thi- think o-our bodies switched-”

“There’s an evil force at hand that’s trying to _confuse_ us with this underhanded trick-”

“i think the universe just decided to screw around with us-”

“EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT AND NO ONE IS HAPPY-”

You curled up into Toriel’s arms and covered your ears. You tried to block out the noise that was just getting louder.

 _“Enough!”_ Toriel shouted out at everyone else, surprising them all. “Frisk is getting upset by all your shouting. Would someone, and only one person, explain what’s going on?”

Papyrus looked too scared to continue. Sans leaned back, lazy as ever. Undyne looked over to Alphys, who looked too scared to say anything.

You raised your hand tentatively, like you were raised to do in school. Everyone looked over to you with curious eyes.

“Everyone switched bodies. Pairs.” You pointed at your belt.

Alphys covered her mouth. “The pairs in the game!” She exclaimed. “Each pair just switched bodies with each other!”

Undyne slapped her girlfriend on the shoulder. “Wait, Alphys, you said you rigged these things to our souls, right?”

“Oh, _ohhhhh_! Did… di-did we switch our souls? Th- that sounds like a good hypothesis!”

“WOW!!! I DIDN’T KNOW THAT SOULS COULD MOVE AROUND SO MUCH!!!

“and frisk here,” Sans said as he pointed at you, “didn’t have a pair, so he was the _sole_ person in our group to keep his soul.”

“SANS, DO NOT MAKE PUNS WITH MY MOUTH!!!”

“you make puns too.”

“BUT YOUR PUNS ARE WORSE THAN MINE!”

“Everyone, please be quiet!”

Everyone froze and stopped talking. They looked at Toriel, who was doing her strict, queenly demeanor again. You noticed how uncomfortable she was in Asgore’s body, but she put her disgust away for now. “I know this is difficult, but we cannot live the rest of our lives in each other’s bodies. Alphys, could you switch our souls with your machines?”

“I- If we could recreate the same circumstances as when we first switched souls, I think I could, but…” Alphys pointed at the pieces of machinery that lay around her. “Um, all of my machines are, uh, broken.”

“Is it possible to fix them?”

“Um, probably. B- but I’ll need to study the blueprints for the machines, since I didn’t make certain core parts of it. And even if I knew how to make them, it would take time…”

“How long, exactly?”

“I- I don’t know exactly, but it would take at least, um, a month…”

“A MONTH!?”

You weren’t even sure who shouted. Papyrus was yelling about all the reasons why he couldn’t be in his brother’s body. Undyne slapped her face in disgust, and winced because she hit her glasses by accident. Asgore’s mouth was hanging wide open. Toriel looked down on her body in disgust.

“Alphys,” Asgore tried to address her as calmly as possible, “is it possible if you could be faster in fixing it?”

“Well, uh, maybe, your majesty, but even if I work on it all day, I don’t know how long it would take…”

Toriel rubbed her head. “Alright,” she spoke in an uneasy manner, “so there is no immediate way for us to return to our original bodies. In that case, what are we going to do now?”

Undyne shrugged her shoulders. “Why don’t we just tell everyone that something happened and we switched souls?”

“Wa- wait, no!” Alphys was shaking her head frantically. “We- we can’t do that! We- we’re being watched by the hu- humans, remember? If they found out that the experiment went wrong-” Alphys started chewing on her fingernails. Undyne went over to her and started shoosh-papping her.

“BUT IF WE CANNOT TELL THE REST THAT WE SWITCHED BODIES, THEN DOES THAT MEAN THAT WE HAVE TO PRETEND THAT WE’RE WHOEVER’S BODY WE’RE IN??? OH NO!!! SANS IS GOING TO DO A TERRIBLE JOB FOR ME!!!”

“he’s right. i can’t really be all cool and energetic. too much work.”

“But…” Toriel looked very uneasy. “Alphys is right on that aspect. Our relations with the humans are fragile as is. But if they learned that not only did we fail executing the experiment, but we had collateral damage from it…” Toriel shook her head. You had never seen your mother look so tired before.

You looked at everyone. All of them seemed to be in down spirits from this…

“HEY!!!”

You turned around to find Papyrus beaming, smiling wider than he usually did thanks to being in Sans’s body.

“I KNOW WE’RE ALL FEELING BAD ABOUT THIS, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN WE SHOULD BE ALL DOWN AND GLOOMY! THIS CAN BE A FUN EXPERIMENT ON ITS OWN! LOOK!” Papyrus walked over to his brother, and pointed up at him. “NOW SANS HAS TO ACT LIKE ME. CAN YOU IMAGINE MY BROTHER ACTING LIKE THE GREAT PAPYRUS?? THAT’S A FUNNY THOUGHT RIGHT? WON’T IT BE FUN TO ACT LIKE SOMEONE YOU AREN’T??”

Everyone looked at the person that they had switched with. While it wasn’t too happy, you could see some of them starting to cheer up.

“THAT’S THE SPIRIT!!! LET’S ALL TRY TO ACT LIKE EACH OTHER, OKAY?”

Everyone grouped into pairs and started copying each other’s personalities. You moved around between the three pairs, trying to see how well it was going for each one. You ended up laughing a lot because of the funny stuff that was happening. You had never thought that you’d get to see a day like this. It was really weird, honestly.

You thought that the weirdest part of your life was when you were stuck underground. You have encountered murderous flowers, flexing horsemen, and the entirety of the Temmie Village. You should’ve been prepared for anything that could’ve happened in your new life.

You have faced so many puzzling obstacles that have baffled your mind and left you confounded. You have survived all sorts of deadly foes that should’ve killed you by now, if you weren’t so determined to move on. You had liberated an entire race from their prison underground, to a place where they could be free.

Surely, that journey was the biggest adventure in your life so far. There was no way that anything else in your life would be a greater challenge.

And yet, here you were, entirely perplexed by what was going on, and having absolutely no clue how to fix the situation.  You could only hope for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is a bodyswap AU :D I was searching desperately for bodyswap fanfics and fanart, but there's a huge lack of it sadly :'(. (At least there's Underswap to give a good idea of how it'd go, but it's not the same?) And that's why I'm writing this haha
> 
> I have some ideas, but please give me suggestions/prompts for the AU, if you have any! I'm probably gonna try to keep this open as much as possible :P
> 
> Thanks for reading! :D


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk has a lovely breakfast with their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm changing the titles to songs on the Undertale OST listen if you want haha

~~Nightmares, eh?~~

~~You wish you could remember them.~~

You jumped out of the bed and fall on the floor. You winced, because the pain on your head doesn’t solve the problem. You rubbed the spot, feeling the beginnings of a bump.

Another bad dream tonight. It happened often, but like any other dream, you could never quite recall what happened. You remember flashes of light –yellow and blue and white, all blending in together. You remember a stranger’s voice that sounded familiar to you. You remember pain and exhaustion that carried through when you wake up. But you never remember the dream.

~~You never wanted to.~~

You rub your eyes and yawn. You heard the clanking of pots downstairs. It’s probably your mother preparing breakfast for you. You vaguely remember everyone agreeing to breakfast at your house. At that moment, you didn’t care. You were hungry and you wanted pancakes.

You hurriedly changed out of your bone-patterned pajamas –it had been a lovely gift from Papyrus, who had been really excited to spot it in the mall for you– and slowly climbed down the stairs. As you entered the kitchen to the right, you spotted Toriel starting to set up the kitchen for cooking. It was awkward to look at your mother, and see Asgore wearing Toriel’s lavender dress. You noticed Toriel’s reading glasses on the table, and you wondered if she had tried it for a moment before realizing she didn’t need it.

You knocked on the door frame. Your mother turned around to face you and smiled. “Good morning, my child.” As she used her magic to set up the stove, she asked, “Are you still asking for pancakes today?”

You nodded. You told Mom that you wanted pancakes today a few days ago. Normally, she’d think of the breakfast herself, but you wanted pancakes. It was an old memory, from times you didn’t want to remember, but pancakes were one of the good ones.

Toriel nodded, chuckling a little to herself. “Would you like to help in mixing the batter?”

You eagerly retrieved the mixing bowl and a large spoon from one of the drawers. You waved the spoon around to show your response.

Toriel chuckled again, and started to hand you ingredients for the batter. As she did, she asked you, “What is a baseball fan’s favorite part of baking?”

You smiled. Toriel normally started the day with a joke, saying that a good mood helped the rest of the day. You had gotten better at guessing the answers thanks to the daily routine. “What?”

“The batter!”

You both snickered, too much for a joke that didn’t deserve it.

You watched your mom go around the kitchen. It was the little things –like how she would avoid touching her beard– that seemed to make the ‘Asgore’ feel like an alien. It was amazing how much Toriel she radiated despite being in another’s body. She looked so elegant and joyful as she did her morning chores. You had never seen a better mother than her in your entire life, and you had seen a great deal of them.

You hoped that this moment would go on forever.

Then the both of you heard a large knocking sound on the door. It was repetitive and extremely loud. You could hear banter, all the way from the kitchen. “I’ll get it,” you told your mom.

It was now Sunday, and all of you promised to meet up at your house and practice acting like each other.

Thankfully, all of you had built your houses next to one another. It was your suggestion, since you wanted all of your friends in one place. Now, it seemed like a good and practical way of allowing secretly switched people to visit one another’s homes without anyone thinking the ordinary. It didn’t matter when it looked like ‘Sans’ was hopping and skipping from one place to another, because no one was there to see it.

You opened the door, and as soon as you did, you were knocked onto the ground.

“FRISK! I’M SORRY!!!” You were suddenly brought up and a fat skeleton was hugging you. You could tell by the painful bones digging into your skin. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE YOU FALL OVER. ALTHOUGH, IT DIDN’T HELP THAT UNDYNE WAS PUSHING ME.”

“HEY!!” You looked past Papyrus’s shoulder to find a scowling yellow lizard. “It’s not my fault that you’re so pushable! I’ve been used to pushing Sans around. He’s the type who needs people to push them around.”

“I KNOW THAT, UNDYNE. I’M ONE OF THE SANS-PUSHERS TOO. BUT NOW, I’M SANS, AND I DON’T WANT TO BE PUSHED AROUND!”

“Well, now you know how it feels!!! Get used to it!”

Undyne started wrestling with Papyrus. Your mother called from the kitchen, “Please do not fight in the living room!”

Unfortunately, neither was listening. You tried to think of a way to break up the fight.

The solution ended up with you jumping between the two.

The two fighters scattered as soon as you were between them. Undyne shouted, “Hey, punk! Why’d you do that? If you get hurt, your mother’s going to kill us!”

“Their mother is going to kill you if you kept fighting in the living room anyway!” Toriel shouted from the kitchen.

Papyrus rubbed his skull, wincing. “I NEED TO FORCE SANS TO EXERCISE WITH ME AND ALPHYS. HIS DEFENSE IS TERRIBLE!”

“I know, right??”  Undyne started flexing her right arm. “Alphys’s attack is _terrible_. I can’t do anything like this! I don’t even know what I can and can’t lift.” Undyne crouched down and whispered into your ear. “Hey, Frisk, mind if I suplex you to see if I still can?”

You shook your head as much as possible.

“Ugh, _fine_!! Why are all of you a bunch of weenies? I hope Alphys is having a blast in her new rockin’ bod!”

There was a crashing sound coming from the door.

All of you whipped your heads to face the door. Standing in the doorway was Alphys, clutching a broken door by the (badly-damaged) doorknob.

Alphys dropped the door in surprise and covered her face with her hands. “Oh my gosh! Frisk, I’m so sorry for breaking the door! I swear I didn’t mean it!!”

You shook your head, trying to pacify her, but it looked like she wasn’t accepting any of it.

Undyne jumped up and clapped Alphys on the back. “It’s fine, girl! I break the door all the time. That’s why I’m banned from sleeping over at Frisk’s house!”

“ISN’T FRISK ALSO BANNED FROM SLEEPING OVER AT YOUR HOUSE DUE TO FIRE HAZARDS?”

“That’s why I sleep over at your house when they have sleepovers there!”

You smiled. You had the best friends you could’ve ever asked for in the entire world.

… But they sucked at acting like each other.

You tried to watch their movements, analyzing if they were getting the hang of their bodies. Papyrus seemed to be getting better at it. He moved way too quickly and excitedly for Sans –heck, for most monsters– but at least he wasn’t falling over anymore. You noticed that he took off the jacket as soon as they sat down on the sofa.  Was he feeling uncomfortable wearing long sleeves?

Undyne seemed to be used to her body as well. She was roughhousing in it same as ever, although she seemed to be putting more effort into her actions than usual. You didn’t even know that Undyne could put so much work into everyday life. Since she was wearing Alphys’s normal day wear, she seemed to be fine. You wondered if Undyne was okay wearing a lab coat.

Alphys seemed to be adjusting to her body the least. She looked very anxious about even touching anything. You couldn’t exactly blame her, after the broken door. You remember how she kept smacking against tall hanging objects last night. She kept her hands to themselves, rubbing them over and over again.

Undyne had noticed, and she frowned. She placed her hand on top of Alphys’s and squeezed it. Alphys gave a hesitant smile in return. You silently thanked Undyne for being a good girlfriend, and not pointing out the problem out loud like she usually did.

“Breakfast is ready!” Your mother called out.

All of you raced to the kitchen, and went to their usual seats. Meanwhile, you started getting plates for everyone. Toriel placed a plateful of pancakes in the center, along with a bottle of maple syrup and a jar of milk. She also set down a small plate with snails, probably for herself.

You sat down and transferred three big pancakes onto your plate. As your mom passed you, you tugged on her sleeve and pointed to the refrigerator.

“Hm? If there is anything you would like, you may get it from the refrigerator, my child.”

You jumped up and opened the refrigerator, retrieving a bottle of chocolate syrup. You weren’t a big fan of it before, but you seemed to have developed a liking for them lately.

After you drizzled chocolate all over your pancakes, you placed the bottle in the center of the table. Alphys meekly got the bottle. But before she could even remove the cap, Undyne grabbed her girlfriend’s hand. “Alphys!” She cried out. “Don’t you remember I’m lactose intolerant!?”

Alphys paused, and gave a long sigh. “ _Right_.”

Papyrus stared at Undyne in confusion. “WAIT, SERIOUSLY!? HOW ARE YOU EVEN ALLERGIC TO MILK WHEN THE FOOD DISSOLVES INTO MAGIC?”

Undyne shrugged. “Guess milk magic doesn’t sit right with me, or something. All I know is that I drank milk once, and the next thing I know, I’m sick. Gills were red and scales were pine-coning. It’s only thanks to my mom I survived, actually.”

You leaned over the table and looked at Undyne in curiosity. You had never heard about her family before. As far as you knew, none of your friends really had parents. You assumed that it was a monster thing, but now that you were thinking about it…

You heard a loud knock from the door. It knocked three times slowly, identifying who was the person at the door. And judging by Toriel’s expression, she wasn’t going to answer it.

You tapped Alphys, who was sitting beside you. After giving her a look, she got up and walked up to the door. A minute late, a sheepish Asgore was sitting in the doorway to the kitchen. “Good morning, everyone.”

Everyone gave a cheerful greeting, except for Toriel, who focused on spreading snail over her pancakes.

Asgore quickly settled in the seat at the end of the table, across Toriel’s. He helped himself to the pancakes, and ate very slowly. “These are very good,” he said loudly, with a hint of nervousness in his tone.

Toriel ignored him. She made very neat cuts in her pancakes.

You could hear Asgore’s sigh across the table.

There were a good thirty minutes of eating and cheerful banter between your friends –Papyrus and Undyne had challenged each other to a pancake-stacking contest; it had ended when Undyne, being unable to reach the top of the tower with her new height, nearly jumped on the table, forcing Toriel to play the ‘this-is-my-house-please-destroy-your-own-instead’ card.

You were the earliest to finish. You washed your hands and walked into the living room, stopping when you found Sans sleeping on one of the sofas.

You don’t remember hearing the door open, but eh. It was Sans. He defied physics.

It was weird to see ‘Papyrus’ sleeping in the middle of the day, though. You could barely find him sleeping at night, much less during the day.

Papyrus walked out of the kitchen a minute after you and as his eyes settled on his sleeping brother, he yelled for Undyne. He walked over to his brother, and started shaking him awake. “SANS! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO WAKE YOU UP? YOU CAN’T KEEP SLEEPING THE WHOLE DAY, MUCH LESS WHEN YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE ME!!!”

Sans slowly opened one of his eye sockets. He sported his trademark grin, despite having a different set of teeth. “pap, i’m just taking a little break before we start pretending to be each other. what’s wrong with that?”

“YOU JUST TOOK A BREAK WHEN YOU SLEPT FOR EIGHT HOURS LAST NIGHT. AND STOP CALLING ME PAP! I’M SANS NOW!”

“didn’t you just call me sans?”

Before the conversation could continue, Toriel walked into the kitchen. Sans sat up straight, and after seeing his brother move, Papyrus sat on the floor.

Toriel waved at Sans. “Hello, Sans! Would you like to eat breakfast? I have served pancakes, and while we have finished eating, I have set aside some for you.”

Sans winked at Toriel. “of course i’d like to. it would _break_ my heart if i didn’t.”

Papyrus groaned and Toriel shook her head with a small smile. “That was terrible, even for you.”

“sorry, tori. i can’t think straight when i’m talking to someone like you.”

 _Then_ Toriel laughed. You could’ve sworn you heard Asgore whimpering from the kitchen. You couldn’t help but laugh a little yourself.

Sans joined you in the dining table, and you and Papyrus decided to return to the table as well. Afterwards, all of you, except Sans, helped in cleaning up the table. Toriel had to stop a dishwashing competition between Papyrus and Undyne.

Asgore looked at everyone. He cleared his voice and announced, “Since we’re now complete, let us start the training.”

All of you headed into the living room. It was a wide open area, with only couches and coffee tables decorating the ends. There was also a TV fixed at the front of the room, although you only used it to watch anime on DVD and Mettaton on TV.

You had only gotten cable recently, so most of what Mettaton had been sending to you was prerecorded on a DVD for him. Right now, he was just guest-starring on various shows, being most widely accepted monster in human society. Most, you could see Napstablook and Shyren in the background, Mettaton doing his best to bring them to the front. You never got to see Shyren’s sister on TV though. It was probably good that she wasn’t being featured on media anyway. Humans would freak out really badly with that.

Everyone settled in the living room. They were all divided into the same pairs as yesterday. Everyone started talking to each other. The entire room was filled with chatter. Undyne was dominating her conversation with Alphys, Papyrus was doing the same for his, and Asgore was awkwardly muttering to Toriel.

You didn’t really know where to go. You decided to head towards Alphys and Undyne.

Undyne was now trying to teach Alphys how to suplex others, using a nearby chair as an example.

You decided not to head towards Alphys and Undyne.

You started heading towards the skeleton brothers. Papyrus was lecturing Sans, and Sans was just smiling there, taking in all the information.

“OK. REMEMBER THAT YOU AREN’T SANS ANYMORE. YOUR NAME IS PAPYRUS NOW.”

“ok.”

“REMEMBER, PAPYRUS ISN’T LAZY! YOU MUST LEARN TO OVERCOME YOUR GREAT LAZINESS!”

“ok.”

“DON’T REPLY SO SHORTLY! IT IS UNLIKE THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO REPLY LIKE THAT!”

“ok.”

Papyrus slapped his forehead. “SANS!”

Sans just grinned at his brother. “huh? i thought i was papyrus now?”

“YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!”

You walked up to the skeleton duo. Sans was the first to notice you. He waved at you. “hey.”

“FRISK!!!” Papyrus walked up to you with a huge disapproving look on his face. “CAN YOU HELP MY BROTHER ACT LIKE THE GREAT PAPYRUS? HE’S NOT TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY!”

Sans shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, with a familiar twinkle in his eye. “sorry, bro. i just wasn’t _bone_ for it.”

Papyrus pouted –the first time that you had ever seen Sans’s face not smiling– and sat on the floor. “I AM NOW GIVING YOU THE SILENT TREATMENT.”

“welp. sorry, pap. i guess that pun didn’t tickle your funny bone.”

“I SAID I WAS GIVING YOU THE SILENT TREATMENT!!!”

Sans threw his hands up in the air. “well, if papyrus ain’t talking to me, how about you, frisk? are you giving you the silent treatment too?”

“OF COURSE YOU ARE GIVING SANS THE SILENT TREATMENT!! RIGHT, FRISK?”

You looked at Papyrus. He had an irritated expression earlier, but now he was giving you the puppy-dog eyes. You didn’t even know he could pull it off, considering his eyes were just eye sockets, albeit with tiny pupils. But these eye sockets were now glowing and sparkling with the power of anime, so why not.

You sighed and turned to Sans. “Can’t you just take this seriously?”

“YES, SANS! YOU HEARD WHAT THE HUMAN SAID! TAKE IT SERIOUSLY LIKE PAPYRUS WOULD!!!”

Sans gave a low sigh. “okay, if i take it seriously, what am i supposed to do?”

“ACT LIKE YOUR BROTHER PAPYRUS!!”

“is the silent treatment over now?”

 “THE SILENT TREATMENT IS NOT OVER UNTIL YOU CAN ACT LIKE THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!!” Papyrus jumped into the couch and covered himself with a pillow. He squinted his eyes at Sans, while raising an eyebrow dramatically.

“Try being as enthusiastic as Papyrus?” You offered to Sans.

“YES!! PAPYRUS IS VERY ENTHUSIASTIC WITH ALL PARTS OF LIFE!!!”

Sans shrugged his shoulders. He looked at his brother, who was now gathering pillows on himself. “okay. how do i act enthusiastic then?”

“Um,” You scratched your head. “Try to jump around and shout ‘Nyeh heh heh?’”

“YES!!! THAT IS A VERY GOOD SUGGESTION, FRISK!”

“ok.”

Sans raised a finger. Blue magic covered his body and brought Sans up in the air. he said in a monotonous voice that was very slightly louder than his usual voice level, “nyeh heh heh.”

Papyrus screamed and hit himself with the pillow. You face-palmed.

“what, did i do anything wrong?”

As Sans lowered himself, you twirled a strand of your hair. “Okay…” You spoke, uncertain of what to do next. “Let’s try this in a different way. If we can make you enthusiastic instead, then maybe you’d act more like your brother.”

His expression didn’t change, but somehow, you could’ve sworn that his eyebrow twitched. “ok.”

“Okay. What kind of things make you enthusiastic?” Wait, that sounded wrong. “Uh, like what makes you really happy?”

Sans’s expression was as empty as a skeleton could be. “define happy.”

“Um.” You gave awkward and random gestures that didn’t really make sense. “You know. Like something that makes you smile. Um, more than usual, I mean. Like Undyne and Alphys with their anime, and Toriel with her jokes, and Mettaton with his shows, and Asgore with being nice, and your brother with, uh, everything.  Something that makes you so happy that you forget being sad. Isn’t there something like that for you?”

Sans didn’t reply. He just looked at you, and you realized just how hollow his expression was. You had gotten used to living with the two brothers, that you forgot that they were skeletons, hollow and empty and no substance. Just bones and clothes and nothingness. Magic. Dust.

Suddenly, someone pushed you aside. It wasn’t too forceful though. When you looked, you found Papyrus hugging Sans. Sans looked surprised –especially since he was now the taller one– but slowly, he wrapped his arms around his brother.

“BROTHER,” Papyrus addressed Sans, trying to look up at him. “I AM ENDING THE SILENT TREATMENT. I KNOW YOU ARE HAPPY WHEN YOU TALK TO ME, RIGHT? THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY, RIGHT?”

Sans stared at Papyrus. Slowly, he smiled and lay his head on top of Papyrus’s. “yeah,” he murmured, “it does.”

You smiled. You forgot that they were never hollow. Their souls were enough to make the body whole anyway.

You decided to leave the brothers in their happy embrace. Still not wanting to check out Alphys and Undyne for your safety, you decided to check out Toriel and Asgore.

Toriel was showing a stack of documents to Asgore. They were the lesson plans for your classes. Asgore was sweating nervously, while Toriel was curtly describing the lessons to Asgore. You took a seat on the other side of the table.

“Oh, hello, my child.” Toriel smiled warmly as she looked in your direction. “Is there something you need?”

“Can I help?”

“Why, of course you can help us!” She answered rather enthusiastically.  She got up from your seat and gestured to her empty spot. “Why don’t you help Asgore with our lessons in language? I will go, uh, prepare snacks for us.”

She left rather hurriedly. Asgore sighed as soon as she entered the kitchen. He placed the documents on his lap, resting a teacup on top of them all.

“Frisk,” He addressed you rather melancholically, “I know that Tori would rather avoid me for the rest of her life. It was fairly obvious with how she has been making sure that she talks to me as little as possible. I have been trying not to make a fuss over this, but how am I supposed to do that if we’re supposed to work together?”

You looked at Asgore. He had the saddest look a giant mommy goat with paws could get. He was looking down, scraping one foot on the floor and fiddling with the hem of his dress. You noticed a cup of goldenflower tea sitting on his lap, which had become as cold as Toriel’s constant rejection.

You didn’t really know how to help him with that. You had nearly zero experience with solving love problems. You had only been in one situation wherein you had to help someone like this, and…

You had an idea.

“Asgore, would you like to roleplay?”

Asgore looked at you in bewilderment. “Frisk, what do you mean?”

Okay, this seemed like a very silly idea. But, it had worked before, so it would work now, right? One success out of one trial was a hundred percent, therefore this had zero chance of failure. There was no way this could go wrong.

“Roleplay. Pretend I’m Toriel, and you try to talk to me as if I were her.”

Asgore nodded his head in approval. “I see... That way, I could learn to express my feelings in a way that might not end in her threatening me with fire immediately. This doesn’t seem to be a bad idea. Let’s try it. Thank you, Frisk.”

You gave Asgore a big smile, and he returned the favor. You pointed at him. “You start.”

“Ah, okay.” He cleared his throat, clearly anxious. “Hello, Toriel. I have a matter I would like to discuss with you.”

In your head, you could see two dialogue options that you could take. You picked the better one.

“Sure thing, honey _buns_ ~”

Asgore widened his eyes. “Ah, yes, thank you, honey… buns. Frisk, are you sure Tori would actually say that?”

You nodded firmly. You were absolutely sure that that was the better option.

“If you say so. “ Asgore gulped. “Tori, I would like to, ah, discuss how our relationship and its future. I know you are apprehensive about talking to me and I am, ah, alright with that. However, if we are to converse on a daily manner, then we must, ah, reach a middle point for our… acquaintanceship. Ah, do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

Once again, you could feel the choices in your head. You knew what the absolutely positively perfect thing to say in this situation was.

“And then she kisses you.”

Asgore stood up instantly, gasping and covering his mouth with his hands. The stack of lesson plans fell on the floor, and the tea spilled all over them. Asgore let out another gasp as he saw the mess.

Oh no.

~~You can’t do anything good can you~~

In that moment, Toriel walked out of the kitchen holding a plate full of sandwiches. She gasped as she saw the mess. “Asgore! How could you?”

Asgore winced. “Tori, I’m sorry–”

“Do not ‘Tori’ me, Dreemurr!” She set the plate on the table and pointed one flaming finger at Asgore. “You don’t deserve to call me Tori if you don’t care about my things! Those are lesson plans I worked hard for to prepare for my students! Do you know how much effort I put into them? And now there’s tea spilled all over my hard work!”

She looked very intimidating with the giant horns.

Toriel took a step towards Asgore–

–but you jumped in front of Toriel.

She took a step back. “My child–“

“It was my fault.”

“What?”

“It was my fault Asgore spilled the tea. I only wanted you two to become better friends and not hate each other anymore and I told Asgore that we should roleplay and I told him that you kissed him and–”

You stopped speaking because your throat hurt.

Toriel leaned down and hugged you tightly. “Oh, my child, it’s alright. Please stop crying.”

“Frisk,” Asgore addressed you from behind. You felt Toriel tense up, but she didn’t say anything. “It’s alright. I do not blame you. Toriel does not either. It was an accident.”

“Asgore is right,” Toriel said in a curt voice.  She let go of the hug and tilted your head up to look at her. She smiled at you warmly. “You made an innocent mistake. However, we will talk later, alright, my child? I would like to discuss with you about what you said earlier, especially about the… kissing part.”

“Um.” You could hear Asgore shuffling from behind you. “I would just like to say that I did not say anything about kissing to Frisk in our conversation.”

Toriel glared at Asgore. “The only way that this could get worse is if our house gets destroyed,” she muttered under her breath.

You heard a crashing sound from your right.

You looked to see that a chair was now embedded in the wall of the living room. Judging from the scared fish hiding behind a shocked yellow lizard, you could guess the who was the culprit.

Toriel sighed. “I hate foreshadowing jokes.”

You had a feeling you were gonna have a bad time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was mainly for developing the relationships between characters, in particular the pairs. Except for Alphys/Undyne, none of them will be romantic. How do I tag that? Sorry, new to AO3 here :P


	4. Dogsong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day back at school, and everyone is trying to settle in their new roles. Hilarity ensues.

It was Monday now. It had been two days since the accident, and you were hoping that everyone could pull it off.

They all spent yesterday practicing how to act like each other. It wasn’t too good at first. Papyrus had a terrible time keeping his voice down, and he always moved around too much. Undyne was having a similar problem with staying calm and not being emotional about everything. And Undyne acting shy? Forget it! Alphys tried to act confident, but she was too anxious about everything. She was about as calm as a storm. Sans wasn’t even trying. The only pair going well was Toriel and Asgore, but they were very uncomfortable about each other. You could only hope that Toriel would forgive Asgore sooner, if only for this.

You were in school now. Toriel’s school was a lovely school for monsters. She was able to hire other monsters for the teachers and staff. A lot of your friends were teachers, actually. It was a very interesting curriculum, even if some of the lessons would end in chaos. The humans were supervising the school from time to time, usually once every week or so. Thankfully, today was not one of those days.

Your first lesson was Homeroom with Toriel. Of course, this meant that Asgore was taking over for this homeroom. Toriel had taught Asgore about what she did in her subjects, so you hoped that Asgore would do well. After all, this was Homeroom. There weren’t any lessons to mess up, so surely, nothing would go wrong?

You were seated in the front most row, right in front of Toriel’s desk on the leftmost. Class was going to start in a few minutes, which meant no one was in their seats and everyone was talking to each other. You were just silently sitting in your seat though, wondering if today would go well.

Well, practice yesterday went well, so surely, this would go well, as well?

Finally, the bell rang and everyone started settling in their seats. Monster Kid jumped into his seat and turned to face you. “Yo, Frisk! How was the party you guys had last Saturday?”

Oh yeah, you told Monster Kid about the party. He wanted to join, but his parents didn’t allow him, since he didn’t do his reading homework.

You faked a smile, and gave Monster Kid a thumbs-up.

“That’s great! Man, I wish I could’ve joined. I guess that’s what you get for slacking off.”

You were really glad that Monster Kid forgot to do his homework.

You waited for Asgore to enter, but ten minutes had passed, and he wasn’t here yet. You scrunched your face in confusion. Where was he?

Monster Kid looked at you, with a similar face of confusion. “Hey, Frisk, where’s your mom? Did you leave with her earlier?”

You nodded. Every day, you went to school with Toriel. You both would arrive at the same time, around ten minutes before class would start. There would be some times that she’d have to do something, in which case you went to school alone. Today was one of those days, where Asgore told you to go on ahead, because he had to do something. If Asgore was late because he was busy preparing for class, then what was he preparing for?

“Hello, children! I apologize for being late to class!”

Asgore walked inside, carrying a huge sack on his back. He looked uncomfortable walking in Toriel’s dresses. The monsters got out of their seats, rushing up to their teacher and trying to rip the sack off him.

“Now, now, children! Please calm down and let me inside!”

The children backed down and let Asgore in. He dropped the sack in the center of the classroom. All the kids started gathering around the sack. They shouting and asking about what was in the sack.

“Once again, I apologize for being late! I was busy preparing some activities for all of you! Look inside!”

He opened the sack to reveal a large pile of... baking ingredients?

“Well, I, uh, planned today for us to learn how to bake pie! I just went to the shop in order to purchase ingredients for us all! Isn’t this nice?”

All of the monsters were staring at Asgore in confusion. Asgore, feeling confused, nudged you in the side. “Uh,” he whispered quietly, “why aren’t they smiling? Tori said that they were happy with anything.”

“There are ingredients in the Home Ec room,” you whispered back.

“I know. Toriel told me about that, but when I checked the classroom this morning, all of the ingredients were gone.”

You raised an eyebrow.

“I am not joking. It appears that some animal has eaten out of the shelves.”

You nodded very slowly, trying to keep a straight face. You knew Asgore to tell the truth all the time, but you couldn’t really think of an animal that would eat _flour_.

Asgore’s cheery demeanor had deflated a little. “Well,” He addressed the class, “Let’s all go to your Home Economics classroom and bake some pie, shall we?”

The kids cheered, and started pushing a startled Asgore out of the classroom. You smiled. This wasn’t _too_ bad of a start. After all, Asgore was just as polite as Toriel. And they used to live together, so Asgore knew how his ex-wife acted, right?

You followed Asgore and the class to the Home Ec classroom. As you went inside, you found Sans sleeping in one of the chairs. The kids started screaming at the skeleton.

“Papyrus!”

“I can’t believe you’re so early!”

“I thought you never slept for too long!”

Sans opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by kids, and one very confused Asgore. Sans went rigid at the sight of Asgore, and then relaxed. He slowly got out of the chair, replying to each kid as quickly as he could.

Eventually, the other kids focused on Asgore setting up the kitchen, helping him as much as possible. Sans made it to the door, where you were. He whispered to you, “i thought my class starts an hour and a half?”

“Asgore has an activity,” you explained.

Sans nodded. “ah, that makes sense. to be honest, i was surprised when i suddenly saw toriel standing in the doorway. thought your mom was gonna lecture me.” Sans let out a small chuckle, and then scratched his head. “why here though?”

“Pies.”

Sans raised an eyebrow. “you guys are gonna bake pies? didn’t toriel say that asgore was terrible at baking?”

Oh no.

Sans must’ve sensed your reaction, because he let out a small laugh. “good luck, kiddo. meanwhile, i’m going to find another place to sleep.”

When you turned to face Sans, he vanished.

You paused. Sans could still teleport even in Papyrus’s body?

You gave it a moment of thought, and then shrugged your shoulders. You were never going to understand the skeleton, and it was probably going to stay that way.

~~He was being very creepy though.~~

You let out a sigh and walked inside the classroom. True to what Sans said, Asgore had a very confused look on his face. He was just mixing the ingredients together, and some of the monsters were shouting out what to do.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to do that?”

“Miss Toriel, why are you adding that right now?”

“Was Frisk lying when they said you were good at making pies?”

You made your way to Asgore’s side. He quickly whispered, “Frisk, do you know how to bake pies?”

You shook your head. Toriel said that you were too young for baking yet.

“I see.” He let out a sigh of frustration. He grabbed the recipe and stared at it for a few moments. After a while, he kept mixing the ingredients, and just accepted whatever tips the children gave him.

You gulped. Maybe this would turn out fine? Or at the very least, mediocre.

Eventually, it came to the oven part. Asgore placed the pie inside the oven, and stared at the machine. You wondered if Asgore knew how to use it.

“Well, uh,” Asgore stammered as he tried to say something. “I’ll use magic to cook it!”

Ten minutes later, the pie was burned.

“Well…” Asgore held the pie with a very confused look on his face. “This pie might be rather burnt, but now it’s a very good example of how _not_ to bake pies, yes?”

The children stared at Asgore. You could help but cover your face in shame. You felt sorry for the poor guy.

“Um, let’s try again! After all, practice makes perfect!”

“But, Miss Toriel, how about our Reading class right after Homeroom? It’s almost time.”

“Oh, yes, that…” Asgore scratched his chin, and paused when he realized he didn’t have a beard anymore. “Well, the pie needs time to cook, so we can read while it’s being baked!”

He assigned some kids to mix in the ingredients for another pie. “Be careful!” He called out to the energetic bunch. “Meanwhile, I must look for my notes on the text we’re studying.”

He reached inside his bag for the notes, but he couldn’t find them. He placed the bag on the table and started searching for his notes. “Ah,” he murmured. “I seemed to have misplaced my notes…”

You felt a tap on your side. You turned to see Monster Kid, who had a look of bewilderment on his face.

“Yo, Frisk, is Miss Toriel alright? She seems to be distracted.”

You sighed, and shrugged your shoulders.

Monster Kid looked at Asgore with concern. “Oh well. I hope she gets better.”

You hoped so too.

* * *

 

After a lot of failed pie attempts and an assignment to prepare a speech on human literature –Asgore originally wanted it to be an essay, but he realized that some of his students didn’t have hands to write with– the Boss Monster finally dismissed you, releasing a sigh of relief.

The class stayed in the Home Economics classroom. You were now waiting for Papyrus, or in this case, Sans. Some of the kids were talking about the botched lesson earlier, and they were speculating why Toriel wasn’t her best today. Others were wondering why Papyrus had been a little off when they found him earlier. You were hoping that they’d forget about it.

There was a fifteen minute break between your second and third classes. However, it had long gone and passed ten minutes ago. Once again, your teacher was late.

And now, the class was very suspicious about Papyrus. Papyrus was _never_ late to his classes, and was usually the earliest to arrive. It didn’t help that he was here earlier, and that now he had disappeared. While everyone was discussing this, you were feeling irritated about Sans.

Finally, Sans walked inside the classroom. “hey,” he greeted the class nonchalantly.

You buried your head in your sweater. Sans wasn’t even _trying_ to act like Papyrus. You had a bad feeling about this…

“so… we’re supposed to have a class right now, but i don’t really have anything for you guys to do. so, let’s make it free time.”

And you were right. You were going to give up on Sans at this rate.

The class was really confused. They started asking him tons of questions.

“Papyrus, are you feeling alright?”

“Why don’t you have anything for us to do?”

“I thought you said last week that we’ll continue our lessons on cooking spaghetti?”

Sans just casually answered each question with a minimalistic answer. Eventually, the kids stopped asking questions and started talking to each other.

You got out of your seat and went up to Sans. He didn’t acknowledge you until you were right beside him. He raised an eyebrow. “yeah, kiddo?”

You tried to give him the best glare you could. You were as terrifying as a Froggit.

Sans let out a small chuckle. “what’s the matter? is there anything wrong with my teaching style?”

You glared at him some more. You knew he got what you were trying to say, but he was pretending to be a jerk. You were not going to let him get his way.

Sans held his hands up. “okay, okay. i’m not really teaching anything. but it ain’t my fault. a dog ate the notes papyrus gave me.“

You raised an eyebrow.

“i’m serious. c’mon, kiddo, do I look like a joker to you? okay, that was an actual joke, but don’t answer the question. what do you want me to do?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Think of something?”

“i don’t really know much about home stuff, kid. pap does all the housework.”

You thought about it. Now that he mentioned it, you’ve never really seen Sans clean up in the house. You couldn’t think of a time he did any chores, actually. The closest was probably cooking snacks, and he always forgot to throw out any trash afterwards.

“see?” Sans shrugged his shoulders. “what am i supposed to do if i don’t know how to do it?”

“Papyrus’s reputation,” you whispered.

Sans was quiet after you said that. You just stood there, wondering what else you could do to convince him to do. Suddenly, he moved, and you jumped away quickly.

~~Old habits die hard.~~

Sans visibly stiffened, before relaxing. “alright, kiddo. you know how papyrus is good with the kids, right? he’s always talking about it at home. i’ll try something.”

He stood up, and gestured for the class to be quiet. You went back to your seat and watched Sans curiously. What was he going to do?

He cleared his throat. “hey, so, class.” He was trying to be louder than usual, but he still had that slow drawl of his. “i’ll start the real lessons tomorrow. but for now, i just want to do an activity. kind of like a prelude for our lessons.”

The monsters were whispering to each other, with quizzical looks on their faces. You had never seen the class so subdued during Papyrus’s lessons.

“so… this is not going to be your _classic_ kind of lesson in home ec, “ he paused to wink at his pun, while  few students groaned, “but i’m going to teach you _cleaning_. yeah, how to tidy up and stuff. my brother is always telling me to- my brother is always leaving trash around, so i have to clean up for him. since it’s a really important thing we have to do at home, i figure that we could dedicate a couple of weeks to it.”

You sighed a bit. This was probably the closest you’d get to Sans doing work. Good enough.

“so… what do you guys think?”

The half of the class gave a half-hearted cheer for the answer. The other half shrugged their shoulders.

“alright, this should be good enough. ready?”

Sans jumped off his seat and brought out a bunch of crumpled papers in his bag. He crushed one of the papers into a paper ball and held it up for the class. “you see this ball, right? it’s trash. you’re supposed to pick it up.”

He threw it into the middle of the classroom, and lazily lifted his finger. The ball soared upwards, tinted with blue magic. The kids started crowding around the ball, trying to study the magic Sans was using.

“you see what i’m doing, right? you pick up the trash…”

“…and throw it in the trash can.”

His hand went in the direction of a trash can at the corner of the classroom. The ball sailed through the air, following a perfect arc into the bin.

He pointed at the stack of crumpled papers he had. “write your names on the papers, and crumple them to make balls. throw them from the center of the classroom. the one with most balls in the trash can wins.”

Monsters started rushing to the teacher’s desk. Suddenly, Sans was standing right beside you. He gave you a very familiar grin. “good enough for you? i don’t even have to do anything during the game.”

You smiled while shaking your head. You gave a little thumbs-up to show your approval. Good enough. Besides, it was fun.

You felt a tap on your shoulder. You turned around to find Monster Kid grinning behind you. “Yo, Frisk! You wanna pair up? I kinda need help, since, uh, you know…”

Right, he didn’t have arms. You nodded quickly.

“Yeah, thanks, man! Come on, they have a head-start on us!” 

* * *

 

It was a pretty fun game.  You wrote your names on the sheets, then Monster Kid crumpled the papers in his mouth and finally, you threw them. You were a good dynamic that worked pretty quickly. When Sans check who won, you two were second-place. You gave a high-five –or in Monster Kid’s case, a head-five– to each other.

Sans dismissed you a little late, but it was fine. Lunch came after Home Ec, so that was an hour’s worth of relaxation. You were just going to have a nice, simple meal with friends. No lessons, no teachers, no burnt pies, no on-the-spot activities. Nothing could possibly go wrong now…

And then you noticed the long line at the food stall. You raised an eyebrow. There usually wasn’t a line there. There weren’t a lot of students in Toriel’s school, and most of them received packed lunches from their parents. There wasn’t really a demand for food here, so there was only a couple staff that worked here…

You froze. There was only one person that worked at the food stall, and usually he wouldn’t even be doing anything there. But today…

You dodged around the line and hurried to the front of the food stall. Papyrus was serving spaghetti, entire platefuls of it. He had a big smile, and struck up a friendly conversation with every person that went for food.

You went right in front of him, and waved. He noticed you and waved very excitedly, before stopping and slowing his movements considerably. You could notice him anxiously sitting in his seat, and drumming his phalanges on the table restlessly. You had the feeling that Papyrus wasn't perfectly fine sitting there with nothing to do. He motioned for you to come up to him, and you did. 

“GREETINGS, FRISK!” His voice was considerably softer and slower than usual, probably to imitate his brother, but it was still quite loud. “I CONVINCED THE CAFETERIA STAFF TODAY TO TAKE A BREAK FOR THE MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, WHO IS MY LOVELY BROTHER THAT WORKS AS A TEACHER IN THIS PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMIC INSTITUTION, PREPARED A DELIGHTFUL MEAL FOR EVERYONE TODAY!”

He showed you a huge bowl of spaghetti, which was bright red. “I MADE SURE TO ASK HIM TO MAKE IT EXTRA SPECIAL, WITH HOMEMADE NOODLES AND THE JUICIEST SAUCES! I WANT EVERYONE IN THE CAFETERIA TO GET IT, BECAUSE HE PREPARED THE MEAL FOR EVERYONE, WITH ALL OF HIS HEART.” And then he turned around to the rest of the cafeteria, which was mostly empty and shouted, “COME LINE UP IF YOU HAVEN’T! THERE’S ENOUGH SPAGHETTI FOR EVERYONE!!!”

You hoped that watching Mettaton on Master Chef had improved Papyrus’s cooking a _lot_ more than you thought.

You tapped on Papyrus’s shoulders. “YES?”

You whispered into where his ear should be, “Some have lunch by parents.”

“OH, _RIGHT_. HMMMM.” Papyrus gave himself half a minute of thinking. “IN THAT CASE,” He got ready to shout at everyone again. “EVERYONE, FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FOOD GIVEN BY YOUR PARENTS, I WILL PACK THE SPAGHETTI FOR YOU TO BRING HOME! THAT WAY, YOU CAN STILL EAT YOUR LUNCH, AND MY BROTHER’S HEARTY SPAGHETTI!”

You let out a sigh of relief.

* * *

 

To be fair, the spaghetti was edible now. You had it for lunch, since Toriel was too busy with preparing for the mayoral work to prepare lunch for you.

You hoped that Alphys would be able to fix the machines sooner than she thought so. You missed the old routine a lot. It was still hectic, but at least you didn’t have a bunch of confused classmates wondering what happened every period.

Speaking of which, it was time for Physical Education, or PE. You changed into your PE clothes in the bathroom, and hurried out to the gym. Usually, it was Undyne that taught PE, and she was a very… passionate teacher. But today, it was Alphys, and you were actually kind of relieved. Now, you didn’t have to stick to such a strict regimen.

 You waited around in the gym for a couple of minutes after the last bell rung. You had a feeling that every teacher today was going to be late.

Finally, Alphys showed up. She was running to the gym, with a notebook in hand. She kept stumbling over her steps. She had a piece of toast in her mouth, which she swallowed in one bite. She started screaming, “I’m sorry for being late!”

Suddenly, a white dog ran by. Alphys was too busy running to see the dog, and she tripped over it.

A couple of students including you helped her up. She placed her hand on her head and wobbled for a bit. You could’ve sworn you heard her mutter about how she missed her tail. When she finally settled down, she hastily waved for the class to come to her. She fiddled with the notebook using both of her hands, and you could see that she was starting to rip out bits of the pages with her sharp fingernails.

“H-hi, class!” She greeted anxiously. You could feel her internally kicking herself for stuttering on the first words she said. “Um, I… I prepared a work-out schedule for you today! Uh, yeah, as if I don’t do that every day, because I’m your teacher, h- heh…”

Alphys looked down, not quite sure how to continue. She bit her lip, wounding it with her new sharp teeth. Her fingernails were digging deeper into the notebook.

A couple of students were starting to laugh. Alphys looked mortified. Her eyes started to water. “H-hey! Stop laughing at me! I’m your teacher!”

A couple of monsters stopped, but others kept continuing.

Alphys’s body started shaking.  Her expression grew worse. She dropped the notebook. “Hey! I said… STOP!”

Alphys threw out her hands, accidentally launching spears in the process. You jumped up to dodge a spear. Kids started screaming, and did their best to dodge the rest of the attack. After the magic had dissipated, a lot of the kids were scared and huddled in the corner.

Alphys covered her mouth in shock. She started turning red and whimpering. “Oh no. I’m so sorry!!!” She was starting to cry.

You hurriedly went beside her, and put your hand on top of hers. You stroked it as calmly as you could. She looked at you, surprised at the action.  She gave you a little smile, trying to show her gratitude for the reassurance.

“Th- thank you, Frisk,” she whispered in gratitude. She faced the scared class. “Um, as an, uh, _apology_ for earlier, why don’t you guys have free time?”

Half the class half-heartedly cheered. The other half was too scared to answer back.

* * *

 

You talked about the entire thing with Alphys. You tried your best to reassure her, saying that accidents happen. While Alphys hadn’t cheered up too much, she looked a lot better than before. A few of your classmates even came to make her feel better. While none of them knew the reason why ‘Undyne’ wasn’t feeling her best, you could tell that Alphys was grateful for the kids. You left her with an encouraging smile when the bell rung for your class to leave. She gave a hesitant smile back.

Next was history with Undyne.

…

…

… You hoped for the best.

You were one of the earliest to change back into your non-PE clothes, and you made it a point to be the first to get out. Knowing Undyne, she’d always come in early. The other teachers might’ve been late, but other than Asgore, they were the types to be late. Asgore was only late because he was busy buying supplies, which he didn’t need to, even.

You made it into the classroom, and you found a yellow lizard grinning excitedly at you. “Hey, Frisk! Ready for our lesson today?”

You nodded cautiously. Undyne wasn’t acting like Alphys, but was that because it was just you here?

Somehow, her grin became wider. She was about to continue talking, but your classmates were coming in now. She got up and sat on the table as the class settled in their seats. When everyone was done, she got down on the floor. You were surprised that she had adapted to using Alphys’s body easily. Somehow, she looked confident and stronger than all of you, despite being around the same height as the rest of the class.

“Alright!” Undyne clapped her hands. “So we’re discussing human history right now, am I right? For the socialization with the humans and all that jazz. Before I continue with my lesson, I’d like to ask you all a very important question. What is the human’s greatest way of recording their history?”

A few kids raised their hands. Undyne pointed at one of them. “Yeah, you there! What’s your answer?”

“Um, books?”

Undyne shook her head. “Nope!”

She jumped up on the table. As she posed dramatically, you realized that you knew exactly what she was going to say.

“The greatest moments of human history are all recorded in… ANIME.”

You felt a twinge of regret for telling her anime is real.

“Alright! So I’m going to have _all_ of you recite today! One by one, you’ll stand up and tell me your favorite moment in human history. You gotta say what anime it comes from, too! When you’re done, you sit down.  If you haven’t got a moment you can share, you’ll keep standing until everyone is done. Ready? Start!”

She pointed at an Icecap in the frontmost row. “You!”

“Wait, what-”

“Too slow! Stand up. Next!”

You covered your face with your sweater. This was all your fault, and you knew it.

* * *

 

Finally, classes were all done.

Undyne eventually slowed down, but she was still impatient with the rest. You were able to get away with Mew Mew Kissy Cutie’s moment when the main character shared snail ice cream with all her friends.

You trudged your way home. Undyne walked with you, laughing about all the funny moments that happened in her class. She kept saying that she’d had loved to be the history teacher, if she wasn’t the PE teacher already. You considered telling her the truth about anime, but you were too scared to see if she'd kill you for lying. When you guys got home, she said she’d hang out with you later, because she had to accompany Alphys with the fixing of the machines. You waved as Undyne descended the stairs to the New Lab.

You were about to go to your room when the door opened again. When you looked to see who it was, you found Toriel smiling at you.

“Hello, my child,” she greeted you in a tired but happy tone. She walked up to you and gave you a warm hug, which you readily accepted. “Goodness, working as mayor of Ebott is certainly different from working as queen. I suppose it has to do with all the relations we need to keep up with the humans. That makes it all the more complicated.”

She let go of you, and gave you a gentle smile. “So… how was your day?”

You hesitated. You were unsure how to respond to that question.

She gave a hearty laugh. “I suppose things were a bit out of the norm? It must have livened things up at our school. Nothing too bad must have happened, or Asgore would have reported it to me.” Her mood dampened a bit at the thought of her husband. “Was he able to carry out a good lesson in my absence?”

You paused, and raised your hand. You made the gesture for so-and-so.

“I see. That seems like a good answer, I suppose. I hope he didn’t go through with my original plans for baking pies. He never had the talent for baking.”

You anxiously chuckled. Hastily, you pointed at the kitchen, and then at your mouth.

“Oh! Are you feel hungry, my child? Do not worry. I will cook you some snacks for you to eat. I think we may have some snails left over from last night, so I could fry them. Would you like that?”

You smiled as warmly as you could. You hugged your mother, and she embraced you in return. She felt different when you hugged her, but that was okay. You missed her the entire day, and you were glad she was here now.

“Okay, let us go to the kitchen.” She let go of you and took your hand in hers. “I might not be able to enjoy eating as much as I would like to, though. This beard is rather limiting for me. If only Asgore didn’t like it so much, then I’d shave it off.”

You smiled at the little comment. Maybe your friends were terrible at acting like each other –if they were even trying at all– but you loved them the way they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll just update this whenever I can. I love you guys if you're still reading <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fanfic haha. Sorry that the first chapter's mostly exposition text. I promise that the second chapter is funnier, and has more dialogue. This is gonna be mostly fluff, with angst at the end. Enjoy?


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